Morning journal and courier., 1887-06-06
TRINITY M. E. CHURCH

ssWhat the Parent owes to the Chflds
 or the Duties OfParentage"-FrOm the
 Sermon in the Series on Home Life by
 Rev. Dr. Reed
 At Trinity M E. church last evening Rev. pr. Reed preached the fourth sermon in his se- 1ies on "Home Life" to large and attentive audience. The text was as follows:
 Proverbs g, G.; Train up 9 child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.''
 Epherains 6,4 ''Ye fathers provoke not your chil- dren to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord"
 After reading several passages of scripture bearing on the question to be discussed Dr. Reed proceeded to speak of the importance of the work of the home as seen in the devel- opment of modern days wherein judging from statistics gathered from many sources, something must be radically wrong, else re- suits such as set forth could not have been shown. Having set forth this fact the speaker next proceeded to speak of the re- sponsibility of percentage as evincsd 1. In the operation of the great law of l which science has made so much in modern days, known as the law of heredity. by | which was meant the law by which traits, qualities, tendencies and characteristics were handed down from father to son, generation after generation showing how in accordance with this law some children were born into the world mortgaged to the devil from the very outset. Such children, claimed the speaker, had small chance in the struggle of life and al most invariably went wrong, in proof ot which he cited the case of the we'll known Jokes family, where from the taint of sin gle bad deDraved woman had ultimately come a progeny of six hundred and twenty five persons, every one of whom had been a criminal, pauper or an 1mbec1le, together with many other authoritative cases, all of which illustrated the truth that "where the fathers have eaten sour grapes the teeth of the children have been set on edge"
 Conversely he showed how general has been the law that the children of parents who have lived sober, righteous lives have been found walking in the ways of their fathers.
 If heredity means anything, it means that a fearful weight of responsibility rests upon those to whom have come the duties incident to motherhood and fatherhood.
 Why wonder that among the thousands of writhing, suffering men and women, cursed from the hour of their birth with irresistible tendencies to evil there should be many ready not only to curse the day in which they were born, but also the ignorance, the stupidity, the criminal lust of those who gave them being.
 Parents owe it to their children to give them fair start in the battle of life, and they sin against God, against their offspring and against society when by acts of licen- tiousness, debauchery or intemperance they cause their children to suffer for the sins of their fathers, as inevitably they must.
 What reason then, said the speaker, that rcen who expect to enter the marriage rela- ton should live righteously, soberly, and as those who expect to give account unto God for the deeds done in the body. Let no man
 I l. kindred acts of immortality attempt to shield himself behind the himsy excuse: ''1 wrong no one save myself" He does wrong other than himself. Unconsciously, it may be, he is dooming his posterity to lives of suffering and shame.
 The speaker showed how that responsibiE- ty, beginning even before the birth of chill dren, continues during the irresponsible years of childhood and spoke of the true mothers duty to her helpless ones in rightly molding their young minds.
 Out of these responsibilities come duties.
 1. The duty of insisting upon obedience.
 3. The duty of training.
 3. The duty of Christian training. Chil- dren must be trained. Left to themselves, as they too often are, they will generally go wrong. Men must not plead the cares of business, the demands of political life. the fascirstion~ of social pleasures as reasons for neglect of their children at home. Nor have they any busi- ness to turn them over entirely to overwork- ed mothers. Men9 may say 'I was busy here and there," but in the judgment day such excuses will not avail.
 Far better to fail in thousand things than be obliged to say at the end: ''I made fortune, but I lost my children"
 Far better to say: Here am I, and here the children whom thou hast given me.
 In conclusion the preacher urged the duty upon parents of immediate conservation to God